gideongriebenow 2026-04-20 21:41
I love good boardgames. Nice to see, I assume, the entire family working together! It seems the rules are just enough to be at least a bit interesting without being overwhelming. First time I see a physical entry :)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Sinking Signal - Physical Rules Edition
By nbumgardner, Agent p and KCTomB
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 410 | 3.58 | 49 | |
| Fun | 299 | 3.57 | 48 | |
| Innovation | 89 | 3.95 | 49 | |
| Theme | 463 | 3.68 | 49 | |
| Graphics | 452 | 3.70 | 51 | |
| Humor | 284 | 3.18 | 47 | |
| Mood | 384 | 3.69 | 49 |
I love good boardgames. Nice to see, I assume, the entire family working together! It seems the rules are just enough to be at least a bit interesting without being overwhelming. First time I see a physical entry :)
@Gideongriebenow good eye, yes it was a family endeavor! Board games are rare on Ludum Dare so we polished ours as best we could in the time allowed. Thank you for the kind words!
ooo yes, boardgame!
I love a good boardgame. Great idea to generate random spaces with the dice. Maybe the rules could have benefited from some explanatory pictures and examples.
Woohoo, a board game! I didn't play it, but did read the rules. Sounds interesting, but I didn't really fully understand them. Agree with others that pictures and examples would be helpful. Nice job though!
Woo!So interesting!Maybe you can add some pictures to help us understand this.Whatever,such a nice job!
Omg, physical entry!!! <3 Love it as a board game geek myself! :D Unfortunately I have no printer nearby to play it, but I love how it has solo mode xD Placing items on a grid that will change / rearrange in next turn reminds me a bit of Kingdom Rush board game mechanic and I love that one! Read through the rules - the game seems fun, the art is lovely as well! Would love to play it either as released board game, or as digital version someday! <3
Thanks so much everyone for the awesome feedback and comments! @kayrum, @lingzhao, and @onedozenbagels photos would be a good addition yes! Part of the reason they weren't included in the first place was due to not wanting to showcase strategies, but for all future updates or iterations they will definitely be a must have! If there is any clarifications that we will be able to make for the Ludumdare version in the meantime, let us know!
@janku, thanks for the great feedback! It's always fun to see another Kingdom Rush enjoyer in the wild, we'll have to see where the project leads us in the future! I for one, am hopeful though! Thanks again for all the kind words!
What a novel idea to submit a boardgame!
The idea is great, it’s very unusual to see a board game here. Unfortunately, I don’t have any friends nearby to play it with right now, but the description and rules sound very engaging, and the hand-drawn art is just beautiful!
It’s amazing to see a board game in the game jam. Super creative! The design is thoughtful and matches the theme really well.
Интересная игра!
Wow! This was an unexpected. I like the idea and art.
Cool idea and nice to see some "real world" creations too! 👍🏻👍🏻
It's awesome to see some well thought out board games in the jam! The rules make sense and seem to flow well and the art for the game is great! It gives me some of the Forbidden games vibe like Forbidden island. Those are always fun to play and the randomness can lead to some great experiences. Definitely a hard type of game to balance!
I used to love this type of game in my childhood/teenage years.
It subverted my expectations, haha.
Wow the art in this game blew me away! Really impressed with the concept, great work!
Such an interesting approach, I love board games! The instructions are super clear, art is beautiful, amazing work
Up until now this is my favorite game of this jam, incredible work in this short time frame.
Thank you everyone for the kind words and comments! @krawa it's an entirely single-player game, so you don't have to worry about getting extra players. @eden-zorro I'm glad we were able to rekindle some of your fun childhood memories! @ursagames very true! Forbidden Island is a classic, I'm glad we were able to bring some of its fun in our game for you to enjoy! Thanks again everyone for all the great feedback and support!
I love board games! To test it out I lasercut the pieces from poplar. Fun little game, rules are clear and easy to understand. Maybe add some illustrations to your instructions sheet so people don't need to read so much text ;-) sinkingsignal.jpg
@pfeyffer that's incredible! I'm happy that you were able to test it, and liked the game enough to make crazy cool physical pieces! But yes, we will definitely be adding images to the rulebook for any future iterations!
A light and fun game that’s perfect for unwinding.
Do you already have a printed release? )
@ionhaven no, there is no printed release. This game is original for Ludum Dare 59. The 3 PDFs for printing it out yourself are linked at the bottom of the post (3 pages of rules, 2 pages of cut-out components).
Cool , cool ,cool I love board games and that you made one is awesome. Like how easy you made it to play it’s reading and getting it right away ( learning from this ) thank you !
cool game
ive never seen a board game entry! so cool!
This feels like one of those little plastic travel games you'd get from a museum gift shop or something on a school field trip.
Some of the rules could be refined. Specifically, more elaboration on how to roll more dice each turn would be nice. The bit about them not landing on any items is confusing, and what happens if there's multiple dice on one row/col?
I think one problem is, if you read the rules linearly from start to finish, everything is a little confusing until you get to the third page, and then it all comes together in an "aha!" moment. It would be better if basic concepts (like slippery rows, how large items work, and how dice are placed) were explained upfront *entirely* on page 1 or 2, then how flares work and what the goal is, and *then* the turn order steps were described afterwards. Otherwise you kinda have to read it in a back-and-forth motion, which is awkward.
The overall design is pretty great though, even if you can get screwed by the dice.
I would probably beg my parents to buy this for me from the gift shop, and then lose all the pieces in the car ride home.
Your game really caught my eye! I think it’s the first physical game I’ve seen here.
And guess what, today is actually my friend’s birthday, so you know what that means, party time!
This is amazing!
@hazel-c thank you so much! Hopefully it will give you and your friend a fun time!
@alchemic thank you yes! I'm glad our game is fun enough to reach the cool mass-market vibe! Those are some pretty pressing issues yes, the things about multiple dice in the same row and re-ordering will be things we'll need to fix for future iterations! A temporary good fix would likely be following the written rules of rolling up to three pairs of dice and if none of them at all cover items, and are in the same row, you'd get a free turn probably due to how rare it would happen, but we'd need to adress them in written rules eventually. I didn't even realize some of that myself honestly when writing it. So thank you for the advice and kind words!
@ursagames thank you again for your feedback! I just realized you've been reviewing our games the last couple of jams, so thank you for sticking around!
This mechanism is very interesting. The game design is very thoughtful and the gameplay is quite diverse. I think it has a very high level of playability!
**Q:** The bit about them not landing on any items is confusing, and what happens if there’s multiple dice on one row/col?
**A:** The repeats are ignored without re-rolling the dice, making the round easier for the player. (Insert explanatory picture here.)